For many, Johannesburg resembles the imagined spectre of the urban future. Global anxieties about catastrophic urban explosion, social fracture, environmental degradation, escalating crime and violence, and rampant consumerism alongside grinding poverty, are projected onto this city as a microcosm of things to come. Decision-makers in cities worldwide have attempted to balance harsh fiscal and administrative realities with growing demands for political, economic and social justice. This book investigates pragmatic approaches to urban economic development, service delivery, spatial restructuring, environmental sustainability and institutional reform in Johannesburg. It explores the conditions and processes that are determining the city's transformation into a cosmopolitan metropole and magnet for the continent.

Urban growth in Africa is higher than anywhere, but, unlike earlier urbanization trends in the industrialized world, it is not being accompanied by economic growth. The result is a continent that boasts high levels of poverty, inequality, and the highest proportion of urban slum dwellers anywhere. Africa has the least developed institutional architecture and infrastructure on an urban scale, hindering the ability to put into place the appropriate policy, regulatory, and fiscal environment necessary to address the social challenges of rapid urbanization. This book examines Africa's urban growth issue. (Series: Carl Schlettwein Lectures - Vol. 6)